Window in the skies: indigenous memory, resistance and experience of Eurasia and the onslaught of resource extraction in the Arctic

Abstract

As the Arctic switches to “new normal” it is being re-imagined once again ‒ region is viewed from the outside as a “window in the skies” – referring here to a distant window of opportunity, myth place, place of frontiers, resources and exotic peoples “somewhere” up there, away. This article positions the region differently: challenging this view based on Terra nullius, empty land of the North is the notion that the Arctic, here, including the boreal sub-Arctic too, is a homeland to a vast range of indigenous and local cultures with their non-Euclidean lifeworlds. Methodological overview of indigenous societies of the North, presented in short form here, illustrates the vast diversity of societies – currently ignored for the most part in the “window in the skies”. Article concludes with the view that by engaging with the various traditions and oral histories of the North a more realistic view can be obtained of this region of geopolitical interests.